Question

Think about a team or group of which you have been a member, either at work or at home. Can you identify some of the team's stages of development (provide examples). Can you identify some of the team's cultural norms and values? How interdependent was the team? How did this relate to team effectiveness?

Compare and contract authority and power in terms of leadership. What do you define as effective leadership? What role does authority have in effective leadership? What role does power have in relationship with effective leadership?

Answer 1

Bruce Tuckman has stated 5 stages of team development- forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.

• Forming: The team members meet for the first time and try to be cordial with each other
• Storming: The team starts to identify each other’s work style. Initial conflicts set in and team tries to work together
• Norming: Norming is a stage of group development that occurs when the group develops its cohesiveness. The team works as one and the level of cooperation and team synergy is quite high. The team starts enjoying working together.
• Performing: Usually in the performing stage, the group starts focusing on solving task problems
• Adjourning: After the project closure, the team gets adjourned and the resources get released for other projects

I was working on a project at my workplace. In my office, projects are allotted on team basis where each team member is given a substantial job. Initially when the project got approval, a project team was formed. The team was in the forming stage. Team members were introduced to each other by the manager. In the planning stage, the team members got to know about the work style and approach of every other member. There were issues in collaboration and coordination. The team had entered into the storming stage of team development. At this stage, the manager intervened and divided tasks among the members. Every team member was required to take ownership of his or her job. This led the team to the norming stage. Eventually people started working and project started building up from scratch. The team had entered into the performing stage. Everything was going quite well. The team dynamics was good. There was a positive synergy with which each ,member worked. However, there was a member, Berry who had a habit of procrastinating work, because of which the entire project was suffering. I went to confront him regarding the same, but instead of feeling responsive, the person started blame-gaming and a conflict happened in the team. The manager used People Capability Maturity Model based assessment method to solve the conflict and manage the team effectively. Eventually everything went back to track and the team was able to give the results in time. After the project got the closure, the team entered in the adjourning stage. The project deliverables were frozen and the project team was released.

Reference: The Impact of Teamwork on Work performance of Employees (Research Paper)

Many do confuse power with authority, however there is a subtle difference between the 2. Power is more about influencing and aligning others to one’s mindset and controlling their thought process and disposition. Authority, on the other hand, is the legal right given to a person, based on expertise and position, to guide or order others.

I really admire the Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory and find it to be effective in any kind of business setting. This leadership model can be the best theoretical model, which can explain the traits and capacities of effective leadership. This model suggests that there is no specific style followed by a leader of an organization. The leader needs to mold his leadership style as the gravity of the situation, faced by the organization, demands. The characteristics of leadership style may also depend on the maturity of the followers. Such a leader, who is able to analyze and handle any kind of situation is called an effective leader.

A effective leader anticipates a situation, analyzes it and then develops his leadership style accordingly. This makes him manage the overall situation quite effectively. If the company is anticipating a change, he transforms as a change agent and aligns the objective of the change with the overall culture and value system of the company. This makes the change embracement quite effective with the company.

An effective leader must have the following skills:

• Negotiation Skills: An effective leader must have the negotiation ability
  • Example: A leader will need negotiation skills to reach a mutual consensus during the collective bargaining process
• Leadership Skills: The leader must have the leadership skills so as to guide and lead the employees under him
  • Example: The leader will require leadership skills to make the employees believe in his vision and BATNA in the bargaining process
• Communication Skills: An effective leader must be a great communicator
  • Example: The leader needs effective communication skills to make the employees understand his perspective and overall strategy for enhancing the company’s performance
• Listening Skills: An effective leader cannot be considered as a great communicator, if he does not have good listening skills
  • Example: The leader will use his listening skills to understand the thought process and disposition of the employees.
• People Manager: The leader must have the image of being paternalistic and to take care of his employees
  • Example: The leader must portray his people skills so that the employees understand that he will take care of their needs and overall welfare
• Problem Solver: A leader must be able to solve any problem at hand
  • Example: The leader must be able to identify the root cause of problems at the company, using his problem solving skills, so as to solve them completely

A effective leader or manager will be able to guide his team effectively, in any kind of situation. He will be able to set the tone of the work and help the team in handling any kind of case, quite effectively. Hence an effective leader emerges as a winner in any kind of situation and can be considered as a great leader.